Bhopal Gas Disaster

Bhopal 2.0 requires government to clean the toxic waste lying in the factory and fix liability. The lesson is that post-Bhopal, India has laws for hazardous waste management and industrial disasters, but no compliance. Which is why we have scores of mini-Bhopals every year

Kerala initiated Operation Blossom Spring on June 17. The operation to dispose the obsolete stock of endosulfan started at the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) godown at Periye in Kasaragod district.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court banned the entry of 346 MT of toxic waste from the Union Carbide factory site, for incineration, in to the state. The incineration was to be carried out at the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization) facility in Nagpur. The order was issued on July 21. The ban has been extended till July 28, when the hearing is scheduled before the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.Read more

The Jabalpur Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, on July 28, ordered the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) to not allow any movement of toxic waste from Bhopal's Union Carbide site to the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) incineration facility at Butibori near Nagpur. The movement has been stayed till the next hearing which is scheduled for August 11. The court also directed the pollution control boards of both the states to inspect the defunct plant site in Bhopal.

The Supreme Court, on May 11, dismissed the curative petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to enhance the punishment of the accused in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy case. The petition was filed in August 2010 against an order of the apex court that diluted the charges against the accused in 1996. The court said that the CBI approached the court after a long period of 14 years and there were no sufficient grounds to invoke the curative jurisdiction.

A five judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice HS Kapadia, on April 13, began the hearing of curative petitions in the Bhopal gas tragedy. While hearing the curative petition filed by the CBI to re-examine the 1996 Supreme Court's judgement, the five judge bench questioned the CBI for approaching the court after a gap of 16 years and not filing a review petition during these years.